Sun Jail
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Hi I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is the Weather Notebook.

One California penal institution has found a unique solution to saving energy by building the biggest rooftop solar power array in the nation. Correspondent Chris Richard reports.

The Santa Rita Jail near Alameda, California has never been cheap to run. Last year, the 3,200-inmate jail ran up a $1 million tab for electricity. This year, that price tag jumped by 50% mainly because of California's energy short-ages and high costs. That was enough for county energy manager Matt Muniz to turn to solar power.

The only cost for this system is the installation. It's virtually maintenance free, and the fuel is free.

The new array of generating panels on the jailhouse roof measures 70,000 square feet and can generate up to 500 kilowatts of electricity. In combination with other conservation methods, Muniz expects the new array to save at least $300,000 a year. With such savings, his phone is ringing off the hook.

A number of agencies and even citizens have called up and asked for information about what we're doing, how we're paying for it, what the economics are.

University of California professor Dick Schoen is an expert on solar power. He says as electricity gets more expensive, interest in solar power is surging.

This is not a case of how people used to think of photovoltaics, 'Well, that's how you run a remote home or a water-pumping station in the desert, that sort of thing. The difference now is that it's gone mainstream'.

And Schoen state and local governments have accelerated the trend. They're offering generous tax incentives if people will switch to alternative power sources.

That's correspondent Chris Richard of Los Angeles. The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory, supported by Subaru of America.